


PRIDE Goeth Before the Fall

by ThatHatter



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alien Morality, Alien bonding, Dubious Consent, F/F, F/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Multi, Nothing really happens but the conversations can be very uncomfortable, Pride, alternative interpretation of canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-14
Updated: 2018-01-14
Packaged: 2019-03-04 21:12:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13373157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatHatter/pseuds/ThatHatter
Summary: Jonah needs Nico Minoru to be alive.  PRIDE will pay the price if any harm comes to her.  After all, Karolina's life depends on it.





	PRIDE Goeth Before the Fall

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: So, this idea would not leave me alone and had nothing to do with the comics or the MCU. It actually started with my trying to explain why Tina thinks the staff she got is from Jonah/is a scientific instrument when the MCU (Dr. Strange to be more specific) shows Tina having the (magical) Staff and preparing to fight to save the world. By the time I was done, no trace of the original story remains and now I have… this. Jonah decided to just completely take over. Some of this may be uncomfortable to read, so be warned. Please read the tags.

PRIDE Goeth

To his frustration, Jonah realized he could not solve this particular problem on his own as he usually did. Oh, there was PRIDE. There had been PRIDE in some form or another for centuries now, but they were merely servants before, not necessities. Now though, now one particular family was going to become very important to him. Now he actually had to rely on one of them. How disgusting. 

They all stood before him, heads down (all but Leslie, her chin up in defiance), thoroughly beaten into submission. Had the situation not been so dire, he might enjoy it a little more. 

“The call to the police was rather genius,” Jonah offered by way of greeting. “The kids will have to be on the run and won’t be able to go the police with their information. Well done, Geoffrey, well done indeed.” Geoffrey nodded curtly in response. 

Jonah smiled tightly. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, we have something very serious that we need to address. Two of the children are at risk of dying, and very soon, without an intervention.” 

He waited through the moment of stunned silence before chaos erupted. Janet was crying (typical weak female, humans were so frail, especially the females). Dale and Stacey were babbling about trying to track Gert and Molly by traces of DNA left behind on anything they might have touched, Stacey sometimes rambling about keeping her girls safe. Geoffrey was talking to his wife about some “old friends” he could contact, while his wife said she would speak to some of her own friends, of the officer variety. The Minorus, the unwitting guests of the hour, were talking about swallowing their pride (ha, wasn’t that funny?) and going back to Kamar-Taj to ask the Sorcerer Supreme for help. 

Leslie was quiet. She stared at him, solemn. “Who else?” She asked. Her words seemed to quiet the others. “Karolina and who else? You wouldn’t care if Karolina wasn’t involved, but who is the other one?” 

Jonah’s smile shifted, becoming more amused. “Indeed. It does involve Karolina. Unfortunately, for you to all understand the next bit, I have to give you more information than I would really like to give you. That information being—you are standing in the presence of a God. The teachings of the Church of the Gibborim? They’re about me. And with everything I’ve given you—are you surprised? I can see you aren’t. But listen a bit longer for the final piece of context. Mine is a small race, one where each being can sire only one child, and never with another of my kind—oh yes, there are more, but not on this planet, never fear. But the point is, on each planet, we find someone suitable and Bond with them. It is truly a life-long commitment. If one dies, so does the other.” He waited. 

“Karolina bonded to one of our children?” Janet managed to say. “To Chase or Alex?” She trembled. 

“Alex is dating Nico,” Catherine rushed to say. 

“And Chase went to… he went to…” she choked. 

Jonah chuckled, but it was Stacey who pointed out something none of the other parents spotted. “Or not,” she began tentatively. She looked at her husband for reassurance. He nodded. “I overheard Gert and Molly talking awhile back. We were worried about what they might… know, so we listened and… Gert said that Karolina doesn’t like Chase, she likes someone else.” She pursed her lips. “She didn’t say who, though.”

Janet sobbed in relief. Disgusting. 

It was Tina who asked the million dollar question. “If not Chase, then two? Gert? Molly? It can’t be Nico or Alex not after I caught them—” she cut herself off, glancing at the Wilders. 

“Caught them doing what, exactly?” Catherine demanded. 

“It doesn’t matter. I stopped them before it went anywhere. Nothing happened.” It was, Jonah thought, the gentlest tone he’d ever heard from Tina. She was a hard woman, after all. 

Catherine did not look at all mollified. 

“I have a theory,” Jonah interrupted. “This… moment that you interrupted. It was shortly after the children witnessed the Sacrifice, the one nearly a month ago.” 

Tina nodded and swallowed slowly. “It was.” 

“And since that time, Nico spent first more and then less and less time with Alex, though not for Alex’s lack of trying, I’m sure.” 

Robert began to tremble. Though men of this planet were supposed to be stronger, Robert was annoyingly sensitive. It was clear that Tina was the dominant one in their relationship. It was uncommon but not unheard of, among his kind. The females of his own race tended to be stronger than the males of almost any other race, so it stood to reason that it was possible among humans, too. 

“I admit, I thought it was Chase too, especially after the Gala. You see, I could feel the fledgling bond, reaching out more like a question than a demand, which confused me until I realized what was happening much later.” He stepped toward Tina. “You remember what happened when they went to the drill site, right? What was it our girls said to each other?

“How did it go again? ‘You guys have to go, he came for me.’ That’s what Karolina said. And what did Nico say to her?” Tina stared. “Say it.” 

She drew in a deep breath. “She said, ‘no we’re not leaving you.’ And then…” 

“And then Karolina said she would hold us off and Nico said…?”

“She said ‘don’t do this, please I’m begging you…” Her words faltered. 

Jonah chuckled. “But there was more, right? She told Karolina she couldn’t do it alone, and when Karolina said she had to go, Nico said she wasn’t leaving, not until Karolina commanded her to go. And then, there was that beautiful moment where Nico left because Karolina commanded it of her, even if she was the last to leave. And, according to my sources, everyone wanted to simply leave Karolina behind, to go on the run, everyone but…?” He looked at Tina. 

“Nico,” she breathed. 

“Nico,” he confirmed. He looked to Catherine and Geoffrey. “Let me guess. Alex has been more and more agitated every time you bring up Nico. She might even be picking fights with him to push him away. Oh, she won’t know she’s doing it, of course, or even why, but the answer is simple. It’s the bond. You see, the bonded one responds to our needs without even knowing it.” To prove his point, he lifted his arm, eyes boring into Catherine’s as Leslie molded herself to his side. He put his arm around her, his grip possessive. He returned his gaze to Tina. “Nico cannot refuse Karolina’s orders, spoken or not, anymore than Leslie can refuse mine.

“But don’t worry about your foolish human notions of consent. Nico could not be bonded to Karolina if she did not agree to it, same as Leslie agreed to bond with me. Karolina’s energy, her soul, if you will, reached out to Nico’s and offered a contract. Whatever that contract was, Nico accepted it, the same as Leslie agreed to the contract I offered her—one so powerful that it supersedes even her wedding vows. 

“And now that you all know that the death of one means the death of the other,” he turned to Leslie, “you are to be at my side at all times. No more secret visits plotting my downfall. After all, now you know that my death means your death.” He looked to the rest. 

“And just to be sure we are all in agreement of how this will work moving forward, if Nico and Karolina die, your children die. If something happens to me, well, rest assured I’ve already arranged for two of each little triad to die. Tina, you’ll be happy to know that you and Robert will stay together in the afterlife, since Nico is needed to keep Karolina alive and happy. Molly will finally get to be with traitorous parents. For the rest of you, well, who is going to survive in each little family is a surprise I’m sure you don’t want to find out. And rest assured, any children who live will not be spoon fed—they will get to make their own way in the world without your fortunes to coddle them. Well. Except for Karolina and Nico. I have to make sure my daughter and her bonded are taken care of.”

He chuckled. “Does everyone understand exactly where they stand?” Murmurs of acceptance from everyone, all of them beautifully downtrodden. How pleasant. “Well. With all of that said and done, let’s move on. We need to get the children back, and then we have a wedding to plan. Tina, Robert, I trust you will be able to find suitable clothes for Nico. She tends towards a darker color scheme, so you may want to consider a suit for her. In the meantime, why don’t you all take the rest of the day for a breather, and we’ll come back tomorrow to work on getting the children back. 

“Oh and Tina, Robert.” He grinned and gripped Leslie a little tighter. “Welcome to the family.” 

Before the Fall

Karolina walked beside Nico in the middle of their line. Alex and Chase were in the lead, with Molly, Gert and Old Lace watching out behind them. They were trampling through the woods, trying to find somewhere to stay and set up a base. Karolina thought they should move into town and hide in an abandoned house or factory or something so they would be closer to food and might be able to scavenge things for Chase to build something, but Alex felt they needed to stay in the woods a bit longer to buy a little more time. 

“Just until we aren’t in the headlines anymore,” he explained. 

It was a fair point, she supposed. With the recent broadcast, and their pictures everywhere, they were more likely to be noticed. But she still wasn’t sure they could stay in the woods much longer. 

She snuck a glance at Nico and wondered if she should take Nico’s hand. Were they together? They’d kissed a few times, and that had been wonderful, but they had never taken the time to actually talk about it. And yeah, when she woke up yesterday morning, Nico was gone and had been talking to Alex, but had come to see her not long after. And better, that morning, Nico had waited for her to wake up before going to get something to eat. It was such a wonderful way to wake up, but…

But what did it mean? Were they dating? Could she take Nico’s hand? What would Nico do if she did? So far, all of their moments had been private, and aside from Gert and Chase seeing the end of their first (first, not the last!) kiss, something none of them talked about, they had not been public. Would Nico be okay with everyone seeing them hold hands? She sighed in frustration. 

A smaller hand slipped into hers. She stumbled a little but righted herself just as Alex and Chase looked back to see what happened. They stared. 

“Problem?” Nico demanded, her gaze hard. 

Chase grinned and raised his hands in mock-surrender. “C’mon dude, let’s go,” he said to Alex, nudging him. Alex frowned but moved on, glancing back occasionally. Behind them, she heard Molly’s giggle accompanied by Gert’s snickers and some sort of barking that might have been a dinosaurs equivalent of a laugh. 

Karolina didn’t care. Nico was holding her hand in front of everyone. Karolina wasn’t sure she was ready to be kissed in front of everyone just yet, but handholding was a good start. Walking into the sunset, the moment felt entirely perfect. Nico walked in sync with her every step and the possessive part of Karolina (the part she liked to pretend wasn’t there, the part that had been stronger since she took off her bracelet) liked that. 

As they walked onward, a feeling of contentment filled her. Nico walked beside her, and that was exactly where she should be. 

-FIN-

**Author's Note:**

> This is not something I think is canon, but can be considered an… alternative interpretation, if you will. Also, consent is something that is very important to me, and anything nonconsensual is something that makes me uncomfortable in the extreme. I apologize if I caused any of you to feel uncomfortable, and hopefully you all read the tags. All I can say is that Karolina’s actions are not intentionally harmful and the ‘contract’ is something that Nico subconsciously accepted so all of her choices are things that she is, on a subconscious level at least, okay with. 
> 
> I have no intention of continuing this story at this time. It’s just a one-shot/alternative interpretation, but if this happens to inspire any of you, feel free to write something using any of the ideas in this story. 
> 
> Thank you for your time, feel free to drop a comment or a kudos.


End file.
